A Biologically Inspired Architecture for Self-Managing Sensor Networks

Abstract

This paper describes a sensor network architecture, called BiSNET, which addresses several key issues in wireless sensor networks such as autonomy, adaptability and self-healing. Based on the observation that various biological systems have developed mechanisms necessary to overcome these issues, BiSNET follows certain biological principles such as decentralization, food gathering/storage and natural selection to design sensor networks. This paper describes and evaluates the biologically-inspired mechanisms in BiSNET. Preliminary simulation results show that BiSNET allows sensor nodes to autonomously adapt their duty cycles for power efficiency and responsiveness of data transmission and to collectively self-heal (i.e., detect and eliminate) false positives in their sensor readings